The present invention relates generally to the production of bezel assemblies and, more particularly, to the cost effective production of multiple bezel assemblies with different appearances through the use of interchangeable component plates.
Many devices used in the computer, telecommunications, electronics and other industries are mounted in sheet metal housings which are in turn mounted in a vertical rack assembly. Rack mounts have long been used in electronics instrumentation applications to mount housings containing various instruments such as voltmeters, signal generators, oscilloscopes, and power supplies. The telecommunications and networking industry often mount switching assemblies and other components in rack mounted housings. Examples of rack mounted housings applications in the home electronics industry include stereo components and home entertainment center audio and video components. In the computer industry computers and computer peripherals including mass storage devices such as tapes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs are provided in rack mounted sheet metal housings. Sheet metal housings are also used to house peripheral devices such as DVD drives which are fixedly or removable mounted in bays within a larger computer housing.
In rack mounted housings, and some other types of housings as well, an assembly known as a xe2x80x9cbezel assemblyxe2x80x9d or simply xe2x80x9cbezelxe2x80x9d is attached to the front face of the housing. In some cases the bezel has no function other than to provide a xe2x80x9cfinishedxe2x80x9d appearance to the portion of the housing which is visible to users. In other cases the bezel may contain an opening, such as for insertion or removal of media, control knobs or buttons, viewable displays or other functional features. However even with such functional bezels, the appearance of the bezel is usually considered very important to the organization which markets the associated product. In many cases the bezel is the only feature of the product which the end user actually sees.
In many industries one company, generally referred to as an xe2x80x9coriginal equipment manufacturerxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cOEMxe2x80x9d, manufactures a particular product which it sells to other companies. Each of these other companies subsequently sells the product under its own trademark or brand name, either to distributors or directly to end users. In such cases the company selling to the distributors/end users may require the OEM to provide visual marking that identifies the product with the company selling to distributors/end users. For products sold in housings, this identifying visual marking is often provided by customizing the housing""s bezel. However, producing customized bezels for its different customers typically significantly increase an OEM""s manufacturing costs. If the OEM simply sells the same identical product to each of its customers it is able to maintain relatively low production costs since the same machinery, tooling and production steps may be used for producing all of the products. If the OEM produces a customized bezel for each of its customers, separate bezel tooling must be created for each customer and, depending upon the bezels, special assembly techniques and/or components may be required as well.
It would be generally desirable to provide a bezel assembly of a type which may be efficiently and inexpensively produced in a plurality of different configurations, each having a unique appearance.
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for producing multiple bezel assemblies having different appearances.
Thus the invention may comprise a bezel assembly for a modular rack mounted device comprising a unitary central plate having a central longitudinal plane extending parallel to its lateral side face portions. The central plate is symmetrical about the central longitudinal plane. The bezel assembly includes a first side plate having a central longitudinal plane extending parallel to its lateral side face portions, and having a central lateral plane extending parallel to its top and bottom face portions. The first side plate is bilaterally symmetrical about at least one of the central planes thereof and is disposed with one of the lateral side face portions thereof in adjacent relationship with a first lateral side face portion of the central plate. The bezel assembly includes a second side plate identical to the first side plate having a central longitudinal plane extending parallel to its lateral side face portions, and having a central lateral plane extending parallel to its top and bottom face portions. The second side plate is bilaterally symmetrical about at least one of the central planes thereof and is disposed with one of the lateral side face portions thereof in adjacent relationship with the second lateral side face portion of a central plate.
The invention may also comprise a method of producing housing assemblies including:
a) providing a plurality of identical housing frames;
b) providing a plurality of identical central bezel plates each being bilaterally symmetrical about a plane of symmetry;
c) providing a plurality of first identical side plates, each having a front face portion with a first front surface configuration, first and second parallel lateral side face portions and each being bilaterally symmetrical about a plane of symmetry;
d) providing one or more other sets of identical side plates including at least a plurality of second identical side plates, each having a front surface configuration different from said the front surface configuration of the first side plates and each being bilaterally symmetrical about a plane of symmetry;
e) mounting pairs of the plurality of identical first side plates on individual ones of the plurality of identical housing frames with one of the identical central plates disposed between each of the pairs of first side plates in a plate arrangement which is bilaterally symmetrical about the plane of symmetry of the central plate to provide a plurality of housing assemblies having a first bezel configuration;
f) mounting pairs of the plurality of identical second side plates on individual ones of the plurality of identical housing frames with one of the identical central plates disposed between each of the pairs of second side plates in a plate arrangement which is bilaterally symmetrical about the plane of symmetry of the central plate to provide a plurality of housing assemblies having a second bezel configuration.
The invention may also comprise a bezel assembly including a first plate and a second plate each having at least one vent passage extending therethrough. The second plate is mountable in overlying peripherally abutting relationship with the first plate with at least one interior portion thereof positioned in spaced relationship with an oppositely positioned portion of the first plate. A plenum chamber is formed between the first and second plates with the vent passages in the first and second plates being in fluid communication with the plenum chamber. The plenum chamber obviates aligning the vent passages of the two plates to pass air through the two plate assembly.